Nov. 29, 2013

Sen. Mitch McConnell

Written by

Mitch McConnell

Special to The Courier-Journal

Last week, Washington Democrats exercised the “nuclear option” — breaking the rules of the U.S. Senate in a brazen power grab to make it easier for the Obama administration to get its way. It has been reported that the president himself vigorously lobbied Democratic senators to get them to change the rules to better suit his needs. This step taken by the Senate majority is not only bad for the Senate as an institution, it is bad for Kentucky.

Yet, in The C-J’s recent editorial, “Filibusted” (Nov. 24), you applauded this power grab. “They had it coming,” you wrote.

What this paper overlooked was that the nuclear option exercised by Senate Democrats is an attempt to nullify the voices of 4 million people of the Bluegrass State through their elected officials in the Senate.

The elimination of the filibuster for judicial and executive branch nominations will leave the president unchecked in nominating the most extreme, left-wing candidates he can. Before the nuclear option power grab, the knowledge that a nominee would need bipartisan support to be confirmed required the administration to moderate at least somewhat its selection of nominees. Now that Senate Democrats have made it far easier for the Senate to rubber-stamp any nominee the president puts forward, look for President Barack Obama to choose even more extreme candidates. This unchecked power will lead to even more left-of-center policies that will be detrimental to Kentucky families and job creators.

Without any legislative check on his appointments, this will “grease the skids” for the administration’s plans to largely govern unilaterally through aggressive regulatory action.

Just take this administration’s war on coal.

When the voices of coal country are tuned out in the Senate, the president can install more nominees who are intent on shutting down this vital sector of Kentucky’s economy. Kentuckians enjoy some of the lowest energy rates in the country thanks to our plentiful supply of coal. And thousands upon thousands throughout the state either directly or indirectly owe their jobs to the coal industry. But now it will be far easier for this administration to shut down coal plants across Kentucky, laying off more workers and raising rates for many throughout the state.

(Page 2 of 2)

“At a time when we need to discuss how we’re going to power this country amid President Obama’s attempts to move the United States away from coal, Senator Reid and his anti-coal allies want to silence their critics,” says Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association — and he’s right. Public policy benefits from more points of view, not fewer; from more debate, rather than less.

If there was any question about the axiom “bad process leads to bad policy,” look no further than the disaster that is Obamacare. The administration rammed through that 2,700-page monstrosity on a strict party-line vote. And now, unfortunately, Kentuckians have to pay the price for the majority’s arrogance.

Not long ago, a Kentucky newspaper I know understood the threat of unchecked power by a single party. It described what Senate Democrats have now done as “a galling affront to the Senate,” “a naked power play and a pander,” and “an outrageous breach of power and tradition” that would create “an unacceptable outcome.”

That newspaper was The Courier-Journal — when it was Republicans who contemplated, but refrained from, increasing their power by using the nuclear option for judicial nominees in 2005. I guess, according to this newspaper, if the president is Barack Obama, the rules should be different both for its editorial page and for the Senate.

As for the Kentuckians whose jobs and low electricity rates rely on the coal industry — I guess The Courier-Journal believes they, too, “had it coming.”